The Best Summer Drink Recipe
Today’s strawberry lemonade is simple, refreshing, and full of fresh strawberry and lemon flavor. It takes just a few minutes to make and delivers a perfectly balanced (and perfect for summer!) drink. As with my lemonade recipe and sweet tea, we start with a simple syrup, which not only gives a smooth flavor, but it also ensures the sugar is fully incorporated (no more stirring to make sure it hasn’t settled to the bottom!). Then on to the strawberries. I experimented with multiple methods to get the most strawberry flavor for this lemonade, from simply pureeing the berries, to roasting or cooking them into a syrup on the stove. Every one of my taste testers liked the lemonade with the pureed, uncooked berries best–no complex steps or concoctions needed. Don’t you love it when things are easy? This strawberry lemonade goes great with grilled or spicy foods, or you can simply enjoy it after a long day in the sun. I personally love serving it alongside tortilla chips and homemade salsa or alongside a warm funnel cake!
What You Need
The great thing about making homemade strawberry lemonade is that you can control the sweetness level; if your berries are extra sweet or you simply prefer a less sweet drink, just use less simple syrup! Here’s what you need:
Strawberries. Fresh picked, sun-ripened summer berries will give you the BEST strawberry flavor, but you can certainly use grocery store berries if that’s all you can find.Lemon juice. You probably already know I’m going to recommend fresh-squeezed lemon juice…but bottled can work in a pinch. I really recommend fresh though!Sugar. Granulated sugar works just fine. I haven’t experimented with making this with any artificial or alternative sweeteners and can’t say for sure how much you’d need and how it would turn out. If you do, please let me know how it goes!
SAM’S TIP: I recommend adding additional berries and lemon slices to your strawberry lemonade pitcher for an extra burst of flavor and color. Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Strawberry Lemonade
SAM’S TIP: I prefer my strawberry lemonade to be smooth, but if you like the pulp and seeds, simply skip the straining step and add the berry puree right into the pitcher! If you’re interested in spiking your lemonade, vodka, gin, or white rum would all be great options! Enjoy! Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
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